Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1887-11-30

trees the won are
% river diamond gayly =
ON bracelet four singing .
cherry the
\ a 9 n OF d 81 A 9
counted the number of words; there
were twenty-five. Now, was the true
reading of the communication contained
in the whole Of these twenty-five words,
or in only portion of them, and if in only
portion, in what portion? In how many
words? There lay the difficulty. The
words diamond bracelet" gave me a dis
tinct satisfaction, but there were other
words which I could not by any exercise
of ingenuity connect them with, such as
"brds'' - ''trees" - "river" "-"gayly"-
"cherry"-"singing." Undoubtedly the
communication was q serious one, and
these words seemed to be inimical to all
ideas Of seriousness. How to select. What
to select? How to arGange the mystery!
What was the notation? All, the notation!
I had discovered the notation of the SEN
tence I had set aside for the time. What
if the same notation would lead me to the
clew / was in search of? The arrange
ment of the figures from to was arbi-
trated by the first letter in the alphabet,
A. would try whether that arrangement
would afford any satisfaction in the
twenty-five words that remained. 1t
would be an affectation of vanity on my
part if I say that this idea occurred to me
instantly. 1t did not do so. 1t was only
after long and concentrated attention and
consideration that it came to me, and
then set it Immediately into practical
operation. The first figure in the SEN
tence I had discovered was 6. I counted
six in the present arrangement Of the
words. 1t ended with the word ''got."
Crossing out the word ''got' and placing
it upon separate sheet of paper pro-
ceeded. The second figure in the sentence
1 had discarded was 2. I counted two on
from the word "got" and arrived at
"your." I crossed out this word "your"
and proceeded. The third figure in the
sentence had discarded was Z. counted
seven words on from "your" and came to
''diamond" I treated this word in sim
liar way to the last two and continued the
process. SCOT your diamond.n Now for
'sbracelet." The next figure was 8.
counted three words from diamond" and
came to "bracelet."
was more excited than I can describe.
There is scarcely anything in the world
that fills man with such eXultation as
success, and I was on the track of Sue
cess: Got your diamond bracelet" The
following figure was 8. I counted on nine
and came to the word "hack." ''Got your
diamond bracelet back" I continued.
The next figure was 1. This was repre-
sented by the word 'T." The next figure
was 4, represented by the word 'won."
The next figure was 5, represented by tho
word ''four." The next figure was 8, rep
resented by the word hundred" con-
tinued the same process and came back to
the figure 6, represented by the word
''on." The next figure was 2, repre-
sented by the word CHERRY"
stopped here for reason and read
the words I had crossed out and written
OH a separate sheet Of paper. They ran
thus:
''Got your diamond bracelet back. I
won 400 on Cherry"
1t was not without distinct reason
that I paused here. Mixing with the
world and moving in all shades and classes
of society, I must confess-as have no
doubt other men would confess if they
were thoroughly ingenuous-to certain
weaknesses, one Of which is to put SOW
ereign or two seldom more) upon every
classic horse race, and upon every i'm
portant handicap during the year. /
nearly always lose-and serve me right.
But it happened, strangely enough, that in
this very month of September, during
which Eustace Rutland sent his mysteri-
Gus communication to his sister Mabel,
one of the most celebrated handicaps Of
the year was won by horse named
Cherry, and that had two sovereigns on
that very horse. 1t started at long odds
I remembered that the bet made was
two sovereigns to hundred, and that I
had Won what is often called a century
upon the race. I was convinced that l
had come to the legitimate end of Eustace
Rutland's letter: "Got your diamond
bracelet back. won 400 on Cherry"
This young reprobate, then, was iE-
dulging in horse racing. His sister Mabel
had written to him an account of the
scene between herself and her father at
the dinner party. She had given him her
diamond bracelet to eXtricate him from
some scrape, and he had been luckily ena-
bled, by his investment Oh the horse
Cherry, to redeem Utmost likely from
the pawnbroker-in time for his sister to
exhibit it to her father. So as to be GER
tain that had got the proper cleW, and
had arrived at the gist of Eustace's COM
munication, wrote down the words that
remained, which were:
'sBirds It e-in-are-the-t trees
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS."
It was all easy task now for me to ap-
ply the same test to these remaining
words, and I found that they formulated
themselves in this fashion:
"The river runs gayly. The birds are
singing in the trees"
was curious to ascertain whether there
were any special sign i'll the framework of
Eustace Rutland's communication by
which the person engaged with him in
the mystery letter could be guided. l
counted the words in each sentence. The
words in the first sentence were nine-thc
lime of hearts. The number of words in
the second sentence was eleven. The
number of words in the third sentence
was eleven. After the alphabetical letter
A in the framework l saw the figure II,
and was satisfied, the last eleven words
being meaningless, that it was the second
sentence of eleven words, referring to the
diamond bracelet and to his winning on
Cherry, that Eustace wished his sister
Mabel to understand. At tho same time
I was satisfied in my own mind that,
without the nine of hearts to guide him,
aman might spend days over the cryptic.
graph without arriving at the correct
solution.
1 had taken no count Of the passing
time. Engrossed and absorbed in my oc.
cupation, l was surprised, when it had
reached what believed to be q successful
termination, to find that it was nearly six
o'clock in the morning.
TO BE Continued.